AUTUMN LADY'S TRESSES

Spiranthes spiralis

Orchid [Orchidaceae]

15 Sept 2010, Mid Sussex.

Photo: © Rupert Browning

White flowers with two main lips, and green deep inside. Could be thought of as having four petals.

15 Sept 2010, Mid Sussex.

Photo: © Rupert Browning

Flowers in a helical row held close to the stem.

15 Sept 2010, Mid Sussex.

Photo: © Rupert Browning

Like two other Lady's Tresses, has flowers that spiral up the stem.

15 Sept 2010, Mid Sussex.

Photo: © Rupert Browning

Small scale-like leaves scattered up the stem. Flowers have two lips, which look like four petals. Stem and leaves woolly downy, giving the plant a greyish green appearance.

18 Sept 2010, Mid Sussex.

The four-jaw nature of the flowers is apparent here: a large curved and greenish lower tongue, two wings and an upper hood. the petals are covered in short white hairs. Note the pale green paper-thin scale-like leaves curled around the mid-part of the stem.

18 Sept 2010, Mid Sussex.

The basal leaves are broad and oval.

Not to be confused with : Lady's Mantle, Lady's Bedstraw, Lady's Teardrops, nor Lady Fern, [plants of similar names belonging to different families]. Nor to Lady's Slipper Orchid or Lady Orchid [other members of the Orchid Family].

Can be confused with plants from the same Genus: Lady's Tresses such as Summer Lady's Tresses (Spiranthes aesitvalis), Irish Lady's Tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana) which also have the flowers arranged spirally up the stem and Creeping Lady's Tresses (Goodyera repens), which doesn't.

Said to smell variously of 'almonds', 'vanilla' or to have a 'fragrant' aroma, take your pick.

Habitat: Likes grassland. Occupies mainly southern UK.

The basal leaves, which are broad and bluish-green, wither before the flowering stem emerges. The four petals differ from the usual arrangement of three 'petals' and upper and lower lips so prevalent amongst orchids.

ANY TEXT GOES HERE

Distribution
family8Orchid family8Orchidaceae

BSBI maps

Spiranthes
(Lady's-Tresses)